Great Wall

Today was an amazing day. But before I go into that I just wanted to reflect (since this is my first legitimate post) about yesterday's flight. I had one of those "perspective" moments as we were in Tokyo. Looking over the city and country side on the way in and out coupled with being on a plane with people from China, Tokyo, and Korea, I really realized how similar we all are as people. The view from the plane over Japan made me see how the people down there live very much like us with their homes, forests, fields, etc. Then I recalled the views I've seen in history videos with the dropping of the bomb and suddenly I felt very moved. I could not imagine from the view I was in the midst of having that we killed 150,000 people or so in one of those bombs. I always thought dropping the bomb was a good thing to end that war, but in one moment I suddenly felt awful about it. Looking down, I wanted to go down to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and apologize as I thought about the innocent people...those same innocent people that were on the plane with me doing the same thing I was doing. It was a powerful moment and made me realize why it was so important for my late friend and fellow teacher and coach Steve Jacobson to build that peace garden at the high school. He taught and preached about people getting along and becoming a global family. I now understand. I get it. We are so much more alike than we really think.

The Great Wall was most definitely a physical workout! After an 1 and 1/2 hour ride we reached the base of the mountain where the Wall was. From there you take a cable car up the mountain to the Wall. Once there the Wall definitely goes with the terrain and the walking is quite difficult. The view is incredible even on an overcast, misty day. It is unfathomable to believe how they got the rocks and bricks up there. The other interesting thing about the Wall was where you get on and off the cable cars is a Wis. Dells type set up with little shops littering the narrow pathway. On the way down the path becomes basically a one way walkway in which you are literally chest to chest with these people trying to sell you the same t-shirts, postcards, and other "souveniers" and they get right into your personal space. I''ve never had so many little middle aged ladies who went chest to chest to me...it was a pretty impressive man-to-man defense. And of course each t-shirt was "two for a dolla" then when they had your attention to barter they would start at 200 juan (roughly $30)!

After the wall, we had a great lunch of authentic Chinese food served family style and much of the food was simliar to what we could find at these type of restaurants at home, except for maybe the fish which came with the head and tail on it yet. After a stop at an art gallery type place (some lady was badgering us to buy an $8000 painting), we made it to Hutong Lane which is the oldest neighborhood in Beijing. Our bus tour of adoption families were able to visit the home of a resident which was quite a nice chance to see what regular/working class people are like. Our picture below shows us in a "reckshaw" where they biked us around the neighborhood. One myth I'd like to shatter is only in some pockets of China you may find people eating dogs. From what we've seen people adore their pet dogs as they were all over. That's it for now...less than 48 hours before we get Eli!
Todd